U38 Preview 2: Loot

[Andu_Indorin]

After five years and nine months, we finally have a new named Falchion!

The Sickles look nifty for any would-be Druids.

The headgear looks like a fair complement to the Ravenloft gear. But I am confused about wrapping mantles (Drow Sage & Madness Mantles) about one's head. Is this a Sikh thing? Seems that it would be a little bulky.

I see: Legendary Lilting Song ...

[Synthetic]

Can you make the shortbow more interesting? Improved Vorpal perhaps - there's a lack of named bows with vorpal compared to crossbows, which have received a bunch of vorpal options, and often on repeating versions that synergize with that effect so well. Sovereign vorpal on the legendary version.

[SerPounce]

Very nice stuff in general. I'll be looking for several items.

Is this the first proper named light pick in the game? Gnomes everywhere will rejoice!

I guess the logic is that the druid weapon/shield/armor set items are good enough on their own, but the +2 con +5 AC set bonus from the druid set is kind of sad. Be nice if you through in a little something to be excited about like 10% fortification bypass, or change the +5AC to +5% AC so it will be useful to the few builds that use AC.


Obviously too late for this update, but hopefully sometimes soon you can fill out the ~ML20 "named" weapons. The morninglord and nightmother stuff did a nice job giving everyone a solid endgame option, but the ETR options still have a lot of holes.

[edit] are craftable rune-arms a thing of the past? That's such a fun and thematic feature, sad to see it go.

[Qhualor]

If an item increases your Dexterity by 19 that will increase your Dexterity Modifier by 9 which will, in turn, increase your Reflex Saving Throws by 9.

If that same item also directly increases your Reflex Saving Throws by 16 you will gain a total of +25 to the value of your Reflex Saving Throws when equipping this item.

I just checked in game and they do stack with different bonuses that I was not aware of. for that I sincerely apologize for being wrong. this must have changed at some point because I do remember they not stacking before.

I will alter my argument to them not stacking with resistance bonus. now it becomes a redundant choice to wear a resistance item that boosts all 3 saves and than wear an item that boosts 1 specific save that doesn't surpass the benefits of resistance unless its a higher number. I would much rather see something else in that slot than a boost to a specific save.

[LrdSlvrhnd]

Sentient Filigree:

Below are the new sentient filigree which will have a chance to drop in all places that other filigree can drop (Ravenloft and U38 chests). In addition to the filigree below all previous filigree will also have a chance of dropping in U38 chests.

Nice for extending the places where filigrees drop. Will they have roughly the same drop rate in both RL and U38? Or will the current RL filigrees have a higher chance in RL and lower chance in U38, and vice versa?

Also, sunder and trip, but no stunning? Any chance of adding a stunning filigree to the list?

Overall the loot is looking kinda "meh" for me... don't really see myself farming any of it (not to say it's bad, just nothing I'd go out of my way to get for any of my current characters). I would love for Lilting Song to be changed to a light mace so that a swash could switch to it when needing to be more castery without losing defenses, since it's pretty much made for bards and feylocks. Loving the purple augs on some of the helms, nice to have a place to slot spellpower augs other than weapons! OK, I might farm for a couple of the helms, and maybe those gloves. And maybe the armor/shield for my druid. OK, there are a few things I'd consider farming for...

[Cocomajobo]

I just checked in game and they do stack with different bonuses that I was not aware of. for that I sincerely apologize for being wrong. this must have changed at some point because I do remember they not stacking before.

Not a problem. Happens to everyone. Even though I generally view my role on the forums as specifically trying to prvise clarity and dispel misconceptions often misunderstand issues. =P

I will alter my argument to them not stacking with resistance bonus. now it becomes a redundant choice to wear a resistance item that boosts all 3 saves and than wear an item that boosts 1 specific save that doesn't surpass the benefits of resistance unless its a higher number. I would much rather see something else in that slot than a boost to a specific save.

An understandable argument for sure.

[Krell]

It's an Equipment Bonus. It stacks with the Helms.

Nice, if you wear the helm or something like the Bloodrage Chrism. Otherwise, not so nice. Personally I would rather have 80 competence on the gloves, but I appreciate the separate type for those that can make use of it.

[QuantumFX]

Are the old trace of madness upgrades being updated, or are new upgrade possibilities being added to the altar?

Perhaps someone on Lammaland could go to the Alter of Insanity and look at the recipes.

[GeoffWatson]

Purple slots on the helms?
That would be useful for slotting Devotion on melees.
Or is it a typo?
First "red" slots not on weapon or shield.

[Godzuki420]

Since I am ranting on this Development team for not being able to read a campaign setting I might as well add a few more things.

1) Only race you have that is unique to Eberron is Warforged. Why? There is the Kalashtar, Shifters, and Changlings as well.
2) No House Orien at all. It is mentioned several times in the game but no house representatives.
3) No Exotic weapons from the setting at all and none of the materials such as Bronzewood, Darkleaf, and Livewood.

So before adding new stuff you guys/gals might want to consider some of these things to add to the game. And when you want to drop an Enhancement that debuffs the monsters in the game maybe you should also drop the monsters saves by 2 to 5 to even the odds.

[UurlockYgmeov]

Runearm (heroic) is fun, will use it to shoot at many Owlbears! ;p

Altar of Insanity looks remarkably sane, aka doesn't look any different (at least the one in the twelve planar vortex)

New loot room:




but somebody came in and cleaned off all the cabinets, so no labels. :P

[Saekee]

can you put trace of madness: solipsism on the gear slots and have it proc on the weapons? That currently works on live with the armors. I would be hot for this, especially if it is a reaper ability boosted helm

[painkiller3]

Trace of Madness Upgradeable Items:
[INDENT]Each of the items in this section has the enchantment "Trace of Madness" which allows them to be upgraded at the "Altar of Insanity" in the Hall of the Planes in the Tower of the Twelve.

Weapon

...

Planar Spike Light Pick
Damage Dice: 1.5[1d4]/5[1d4+2]
Critical Profile: 20/x4

• Piercing 3d6/9d6
• Heartseeker I/VII
• Screeching 8d6/20d6 On critical hit
• Maiming +3/9
• Red Augment Slot

I was unable to upgrade any weapon at the Altar of Insanity, it said it could only upgrade Armor, despite the trace of madness being on the weapons

[lLockehart]

Having a batch of items aimed for the upcoming passes is always nice but I don't understand the need to swamp the 28-29 lvl range with the same items that focus on mostly incremental increases.

There's a huge gap in options from 20 to 26'ish and while people daily their way out of there, it still feels wrong to have so much stuff to compete awkwardly with the capped range: Slavers-Mines-Ravenloft-This one. It's too much of the same with some even giving single resistance bonus saves and stats being spread all over the place - Why not design an insightful Str item (that's lacking outside CC) let's say the Raging Boots and stuff it with all the seeker related stuff and a simple on-vorpal effect like granting your next trip feat 1000 bludgeon damage and X bonus DC - Simple, coherent and actually engaging to use. Loot in the ml29 range is already awkward enough since there's no end game and most players use them for one single level before they TR.

It's hard to word the issue correctly but it's like a huge web all tangled up where you're not actually solving a puzzle of min-maxing your loot as you're hopelessly trying to understand what stacks and what doesn't. In the end you just end up with vanilla stats all buffed up with no actual build interactions. There will come a time where we can no longer have -another- stacking prefix for stats. I think it's an opportunity to introduce simple Items to quest rewards like special potions, gadgets, utility based stuff or things like Torc which still retain some charm to this day along with some actual usability. Or unique weapons that serve niche purposes, it's been so long since an interesting weapon popped up, RL was a bit of a let down in that regard where some items were very creative and others (The seemingly melee staff) were... abstract to say the least and it's super strange because that staff has unique textures and effects whilst the casting one is quite bland in comparison, visual wise. Like this bow, It's a good bow! and it's nice to see Short bows being represented but it's just vanilla damage that you'll probably use over the Ice bow if it yields more Dps which is a shame. The same for the Falchion which is a cool weapon type and it's awesome to see it represented but it doesn't really do anything.


The Runearm does come with a special, unique effect which is an immensely appreciated effort on my part at least, good job on that.

Curse Necromancer set is also somewhat unique and helps enhancing the seemingly useless Sla's in the Palemaster tree and awards dynamic play which is the strong forte of DDO. Neatly designed as well.

And lastly, the return to the Trace of Madness is really appreciated as well, coming back to old content is always good, even if it's just a little like this, it's still great.

It's hard for me to review the filigrees unbiased as I loathe the grindy mechanic but the displacement set does seem quite useful but at the same time, it can't really exist alongside the 75 power Ab's which lock you out of choosing anything different.

[UurlockYgmeov]

heroic altar of insanity looks the same; however when Owlbear tries to insert Legendary equipment, the altar threatens to fry me.

my guess - there will be another / new Altar of Legendary Insanity

[neain2008]

I'm really looking forward to the new natures set, but why two weapons and no shield? I understand that it's meant to be a multi purpose caster set and not just for druids (at least that's what I assume), but is there any way we could get a shield that does the same as one of those sickles?

[Aelonwy]

I noticed that this Dev team seems to overlook the Insightful wisdom ability modifier. I feel like this is due to monks so why not make a Tower Shield with this on it? That would cut monks out without hurting clerics/Favor souls/Druids. Also why has this team not taken into consideration the eberron setting materials like Darkleaf and Bronzewood? Do you not read the setting at all when coming up with new quests? This update tastes like bland meat to me.

I want to support this sentiment. It was mentioned in the Ravenloft loot threads that Insightful wisdom seemed to be forgotten or missed, and I know it was mentioned that cleric/fvs did not get a Radiance/Radiance Lore belt though nearly ALL other spell power/lore was supported by Ravenloft loot. Presumably this had something to do with warlocks although no dev ever commented as such. Perhaps this oversight can be rectified with a druid themed shield. I know druids only get a few light spells, but it would bolster several classes at once that use shields, light spells, and need wisdom for DCs.

[Arkat]

3) No...from the setting at all and none of the materials such as Bronzewood, Darkleaf, and Livewood.

Incorrect.

[QuantumFX]

heroic altar of insanity looks the same

Does that mean the same enchantments can be applied to this new gear? Or that there are no recipes for the new gear?

[scipiojedi]

I presume they break up the saves so that high reflex characters will still die to will and fort spells and high fort people will have weaker saves in will and reflex, instead of everyone running around with crazy high saves in all 3 categories that makes it impossible to tune quests for. At least that is my biased opinion until they give us a response. I'm not sure if their intent is really panning out the way they want or not but I know I mostly just equip a high reflex save item and forgo the other two saves on most of my builds.